The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-09-17
THE RISING OF THE NILE.

Edward L. Wilson, in Scribner's Magazine.
 Now the fleet Nile craft decreases, and the chaffing of the hoatmen is al- most hushed. How splendid are the scenes on every side! How they change every mile! The palms, the Arab villages, the minarets and domes of the mosques appear in slow suc- cession; again the pyramids are in view and always is heard the sound of the busy shadoof and the dreamy squeak of the sakiyeh. The shores now reveal how Egypt was created, film upon film, layer upon layer. One marvels not that the people who live upon them, even now, look upon the Nile as the "Giver of all good"
 It moves on and on before them as gently as the rays of the rising moon. It is always kindly. It gives water and food-gives life. Once year it rises and widens, and almost entirely submerges the tillable lands at it's sides. What it does not so reach, it is made to reach by artificial means. The overflow is no misfortune to those whose homes are upon it's banks. It is their best blessing. For the Nile well repays for the right of way during the inundation by leaving a deposit upon the land which is worth it's weight in gold. It does not change its habits; it never brings surprise and destruction. It is good to the people who trust in it. The sun al- ways shines for them; and when un- molcsted and untramelled their dispo- sitions are sunshiny. They are hos pitable, generous, willing to serve the stranger, industrious, religious, brow beaten, taxed, bastinadoed and dis couraged until their spirit is almost gone. And yet they are good natured, patient and seem to be happy!
 When the time approaches for the inundation the Arab farmer is all ex- pectancy. His canals are cleared, and he protects his home by dikes and walls of adobe. This done, seated at his door, he watches with satisfaction and gratitude the rise and approach of the water which holds his little wealth. 1t is several months rising to it's greatest height, then as slowly and gradually subsidies. Then appears again to his delighted vision the hus- bandman's farm. His palm trees seem to rise to greater reach, and their waving branches add to the sense of calm and content which pervades all. Already his well-filled canals have de- fined themselves, and his irrigating machinery is at once put in repair There is no more use for the boats which have served to carry him from place to place during the inundation. They are hidden among the rushes on the banks of the canal. Every avail able person is now pressed into the service. If the thin deposit of mud left by the departing river is kept moist, its value remains at par If the hot sun is allowed to play upon it un- opposed, it soon becomes baked and curls up into tiny cylinders; then, breaking into fragments, it falls dead and worse than useless. Therefore the process of irrigation must begin at once. The rude sakiyeh and the ruder shadoof are kept going night and day and give employment to tens of thOus- ands of the people and cattle as well. With these primitive appliances the water is lifted and emptied into chan Dels which have been dug or diked to receive it. From these larger recepta- cles the water is led to smaller ones, which, overfowing, cover the fields
 In a little time, then, a Nile farm becomes rare beauty spot instead of a waste of mud, for now the crops are grown. The lentils bend with their heavy load and the fields of grain turn their we'll filled heads from side to side that the ripening sun may change their green freshness into gold. What landscape, unadorned by art, can be more lovely than such farm, narrow though it's limits may be, with its growth of palms to fan the breeze and scatter their sweet fruitage into the lap of the happy fellahin? Here no weeds grow to annoy him. No stone crops are belched to the surface each year to stop the blow. And this is good, for the Egyptian blow has no scientifically curved coulter or sub- soil attachment. When the crops are ripening the irrigation must rest a while, for all hands are pressed to help with the ingathering.
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